Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

As Brian Cowen announced earlier today that he would himself table a motion of confidence in his leadership at the PP meeting on Tuesday (statement here), this evening Michael Martin held a presser announcing his own decision to vote against the motion and that he has put forward his resignation to the Taoiseach. Cowen will [...]

Quote from Brian Cowen — “In normal times you don’t see a diversion (sic) of interest between national interests or national advance if you like and political advance. So we live in very transformative times”. (11 minutes in) So during 1997-2007, there was no difference between the national interest and that of Fianna Fail.  Remarkable.

If you’re old enough, or if you like those old detective shows, you’ll remember the time in every episode when Detective Columbo would have reassured his prime suspect that he was not the prime suspect, step out the door, and then pop back in with a jarring “just one more thing”.   Yesterday in the Dail, [...]

Bertie Ahern used a bit of Yeats (the municipal gallery poem) in his retirement speech to the O’Donovan Rossa cumann this evening.  The latter-years Yeats liked to tour through the memories and link them and and so it’s not surprising that there were echoes of Bertie’s more difficult moments even in the sanctuary of the [...]

As has been widely noted, the Constitution says – The State shall not be bound by any international agreement involving a charge upon public funds unless the terms of the agreement shall have been approved by Dáil Éireann. The current talking points supplied by the government’s ace legal department are that since the loan program is [...]

It didn’t seem possible that the Irish political system could look more busted today than it did yesterday but that’s where the version of Lanigan’s Ball from the Greens leaves it.   Michael Lowry — having had the leverage of his side-deal with the Coalition for nearly 3 years in return for his vote, runs to [...]

As ratings agencies, pundits, and the occasional minister demand that Fine Gael provide political cover for the next 4 budgets — with 3 years of disastrous decions to be taken as water under the bridge — Edward Walsh steps up to the plate in the Irish Times to make the case in stirring historical terms: [...]

Thanks to politics.ie. FG 31 (-2) FF24,(nc) LAB 23 (-4) SF 10 (+2) GR 3 (+1) Oths 9 (+3) Underlines volatility of Labour vote. Also public satisfaction with Brian Cowen is 19% to 64% dissatisfied and 17% undecided. 29% are more likekly to vote vote FF with Cowen replaced, including 21% of FG and Labour [...]

In the now infamous interview (transcript)with Morning Ireland, Brian Cowen – Could not provide a headline number for the total budgetary adjustment being sought next year Was reduced to vague jargon in trying to explain the budgetary process (‘estimates campaign”) — this from someone who served 4 years as finance minister Barely could muster an [...]

In a week when the use of forged documentation in the asylum-system was highlighted with the rejection by the Supreme Court of the appeal of Nigerian asylum-seeker Pamela Izevbekhai against her deportation, FG and Labour are proposing the allow asylum-seekers to work. Despite 13% unemployment and mass-emigration – Alan Shatter and Pat Rabbitte are now [...]

Another day, another confidence motion. Well it may have been if #fgheave was not going on in the background. If you care to watch the main speeches you can watch Enda Kenny here (with James Reilly his new best friend/wannabe deputy leader sitting beside him) , Brian Cowen and him saying sorry for the government’s [...]

Here’s the text of Brian Cowen’s speech entitled “A Decade of Commemorations — Commemorating Our Shared History” to the Institute for British Irish Studies at UCD today.  There are various points to make.  One is that these speeches — and this is not Cowen’s fault — have adopted a psychobabble language since they are written [...]

One of the mysteries of the Irish economic crisis, which historians may eventually puzzle over, is the long-drawn out nature of it.  On March 30, 2010, we get decisions regarding the financial sector that other countries made 12-18 months ago.  And for all the disruption caused by the selective go-slows in the public sector, the [...]

It is hardly surprising that following a reshuffle in which the conservative streak won out, the back benches in Fianna Fail are slightly angsty. They are in a perpetual knot over keeping their seats and advancing toward the ministerial merc. Interestingly with the reshuffle Cowen has brought both his Kitchen cabinet and the Green party [...]

There will be days of digesting the implications of the Willie O’Dea resignation.  Here’s a few impressions of where we are; doubtless others have their own.

There’s the old line about the Bourbons when they got back in power after Napoleon that “they had learned nothing and forgotten nothing”.  Then there’s Fianna Fail.  The Willie O’Dea confidence motion debate today was mercifully short because it showed a government that, after years of scandals and concerns about conduct in public office, has [...]